Bulgaria's European Commissioner for Consumer protection Meglena Kuneva is to go to Washington next week for meetings with the US president's office of information and regulatory affairs.

She will also meet officials from the Federal Trade Commission, the US department of health and human services and members of Congress's commerce committees.

The meetings come in the wake of a public-relations fiasco for the US toy-firm Mattel, which this year has had to issue three product recalls over the quality of toys made in China. EU authorities are reviewing whether they could have been alerted earlier to Mattel's problems.

An internal Commission document prepared ahead of Kuneva's visit suggests exchanging data with the US on China's monitoring mechanisms and on product recalls.

A delegation of MEPs will also be visiting Washington next week. They are planning to raise the possibility of greater co-operation on product safety with members of Congress. UK centre-right MEP Jonathan Evans, who is chairing the delegation, said that greater EU-US co-operation on product safety would be raised as part of preparations for the first meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council, a forum made up of senior EU and US politicians charged with improving regulatory co-operation.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!